Women novelists writing a story through the POV of a man

Roxxsmom said:

Not necessarily, if the gaping chasm between what people believe is the right way to feel and behave and how they actually feel and behave in our own times is any indication.

But that's where you get into things like denial, shame, guilt, deception, reconciliation, cognitive dissonance, and other ways of dealing with this. All these can be fascinating aspects of characters.

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Ah yes, of course. I knew this in my head but hadn't expressed it -- we're all walking contradictions in some form or another!! We often suppress our own true feelings & desires. People will sometimes turn on their own family/friends because "what will the neighbours think!".

C.bronco said:

Dealing with male misconceptions about women and double standards in my personal life however, is a whole other story.

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My mam was the main earner in my family and my dad always made sure we respected her sacrifices. He had serious health issues and often couldn't work. He did do the housework (as well as the handyman jobs) and a clean house is a source of pride to him. He's not really a good cook but that's never stopped him though! My mum's a butcher and can gut/fillet anything no bother which isn't a modern female trait (but most peoples great-grandmothers were the ones gutting and snapping the necks of chickens!!)

I grew up without the misconceptions or so I like to think. However I recently met a grown man who's completely incapable of feeding himself if his wife hasn't left him a dinner to heat up!! Absolutely shocked so I was!!

I write lots of male POV and always have. I like writing male POV better than female and judging by my reviews, I think I pull it off okay.

I'm a guy. And a lot of what I write falls into the "romance" category.

When I write novels with two MC's I almost always write from the POV of both over the course of the book; overlapping their thoughts so that the reader can get a better idea of what has drawn or attracted one character to the other. I find it also helps to create tension and build a believable world.

I think writing both MC's POV's in a romance is an incredible exercise for authors in developing a distinctive character voice. My goal is that within a sentence or two my reader should be able to tell if it's FMC or MMC who is narrating simply by what they say and how they express it. I also wrote a m/m piece in which I pushed myself to create two unique male voices and narrate from each character's POV.

I think men can write a convincing female POV, and women writers can equally capture a male POV. It's all about good research and editing on the author's part... and a dash of suspension of belief from our readers!

-EJ